Has theWelsh exodus to
IF you were to be asked the name of the only Welsh player left in the French Top 14 as the 2017-18 season looms, would you know the answer?
Well, if it comes up in the next pub quiz you take part in here’s your chance to make yourself look clever; it’s Aaron Jarvis.
The rugby anoraks will have known as much. More casual followers of the game will doubtless have taken longer to remember the former Ospreys and Wales prop, now 31, is entering his second season at Clermont-Auvergne.
Yet how many of us would have predicted two or three years ago that by the summer of 2017 we would be down to a solitary Welshman plying his trade across the channel? Who would have though there would be more Scots in the French top flight than Welsh – Richie Gray is at Toulouse and Greig Laidlaw is alongside Jarvis in the heart of the Massif-Centrale
Such a situation begs further questions: is the fabled French exodus a thing of the past for Welsh rugby? If so, why? And how successful were those who chose to be part of it? umpteen Wales stars. James Hook and Lee Byrne went to Perpignan and Clermont respectively, Mike Phillips went to Bayonne, Jamie Roberts and Dan Lydiate fancied a sojourn to Paris with Racing 92, as did Luke Charteris.
Jonathan Davies headed to Clermont, Leigh Halfpenny and Gethin Jenkins to Toulon.
There were also a whole host of departures among lower profile Welsh players. Alix Popham, Aled Brew, Liam Davies, Chris Czekaj, Cerith Rees and Barry Davies among others left to play on French soil. SO WHAT WAS THE LEVEL OF SUCCESS? IT depends on your definition of success.
In terms of trophies won, in terms of the reason for going to France being the chance to grab glory at club level, the picture is relatively barren.
Thomas, Halfpenny and Jenkins all won the European Cup, it’s a box they have ticked and one which, as we have seen, very few Welshman have.
But Thomas and Halfpenny left Toulouse and Toulon respectively on bad terms and Jenkins only lasted one season at Toulon after failing to settle. The loosehead prop was also only a second half substitute when Toulon beat Clermont in the Champions Cup final at Twickenham in 2015.
Furthermore, when you look at the time Welsh players have spent at French clubs there is one glaringly absent achivement among them all – none of them have been part of a Top 14 title winning outfit.
In a country where the domestic prize is valued more than European success, it’s not a factor to be dismissed.
Thomas came close with Toulouse in 2006, only for his then side to take a rare 40-13 thrashing at the hands of Biarritz in the play-off final.
Halfpenny matched that by playing for Toulon against Racing 92 in the 2016 final at Barcelona’s Nou Camp citadel, his side losing 29-21 in front of 99,000 people. AND SO WHAT OF THE REST? WELL, Lee Byrne attained consistently fine form for Clermont in his three years with them, without being rewarded with silverware.
James Hook was a crowd favourite at Perpignan but his move to Catalonia coincided with the first years of the club’s demise and when he left